Joost van Dreunen

Three predictions on what's next Is Apple changing its stance on gaming? With the financial fallout from its recent loss to Epic Games becoming more transparent (see below), Apple may finally have a reason to rethink its long-standing indifference toward interactive entertainment. Steve Jobs never really cared about games, except when he did. In a 2010 earnings call, he proudly noted that Apple had become the world’s biggest mobile gaming platform “without even trying.” One theory is that Apple doesn’t “get” games because it doesn’t need to. The company treats gaming as ancillary to its real business: hardware margins and ecosystem control. According to John Carmack in a 2008 interview, Apple’s design ethos and tight-fisted approach don’t mesh with the creative chaos and technical demands of user-driven, high-performance gaming But that stance appears to be shifting. In just one week, Apple […]

Zelnick’s gamer status matters less than his segmentation strategy. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn’t play video games. That’s what made headlines. Some were surprised to hear such a candid admission from the head of the second-largest publicly traded game publisher in the U.S. Should it, though? I’ll admit, I’ve asked people the same question for years. It is a quick litmus test at conferences: Do you actually play games, or are you just here for the open bar? Too often, vendors (think: payment processors, ad tech firms) show up at major gaming events without the faintest clue about the industry they were trying to sell into. Internally, it was an unofficial screening tool during hiring. Sure, having a new analyst who knows the space helps. But more than raw talent, cultural fluency matters. If you don’t know what your clients […]

Parity clauses, platform control, and the case that could crack it. The tariff deadlock between China and the United States has been postponed for 90 days, suggesting that the national security threat that warranted it has been magically resolved. Take-Two’s delayed Grand Theft Auto 6, giving everyone else more breathing room this holiday season. And the Catholic Church has a new leader, Pope Leo XIV, who apparently plays Words with Friends. (I’m excited for a localized Vatican version—Verba Cum Amicis.) Oh, and I’ve successfully reached the end of another semester, leaving me only that stack of final papers to grade. BIG READ: Steam’s monopoly moment has arrived In 2003, Valve launched Steam to solve the patching nightmare of PC gaming. Two decades later, it’s defending the platform’s dominance in court, not from hackers, but from antitrust regulators who now see its marketplace success as […]

High drama in Big Tech compliance theater. In a sweeping and sharply worded order, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers held Apple in willful violation of the court’s 2021 injunction in the Epic Games antitrust case. The injunction, originally issued in 2021 and upheld on appeal, prohibited Apple from restricting developers from directing users to alternative payment mechanisms. Rather than comply, Apple introduced new roadblocks, including a 27% commission on off-app purchases and friction-inducing scare screens designed to dissuade users from leaving its ecosystem. Apple’s effort to preserve a 27% cut on off-app payments wasn’t trivial—it represents billions annually in potential revenue retention. This is the first time a U.S. court has called Apple’s platform fee what it is: rent-seeking. It doesn’t mean the end of the 30% cut, but it does mean that fee structures will face greater scrutiny, especially when they’re engineered […]

Interactive entertainment thrives despite economy, defying expectations. BIG READ: Gaming’s counter-cycle TL;DR: Nintendo’s Switch 2 pre-order frenzy is further evidence that in times of economic strain, video games continue to defy gravity, revealing a powerful counter-cyclical pattern that reshapes how we understand consumer priorities. This week, 2.2 million Japanese consumers registered for Nintendo’s Switch 2 lottery. It is a figure that’s less about an impressive pre-order statistic and more about the broader economics of console gaming. The concentrated demand surge for a premium-priced console costing $449.99 during a period of heightened tariff pressures and economic uncertainty showcases counter-cyclical market dynamics that challenge conventional assumptions about discretionary spending behavior. The business of video games has a distinctive economic resilience with significant implications for investors, strategists, and policymakers alike. History backs this up. During the 2007-2009 financial recession, the gaming market remained largely stable, with global […]